The Senate confirmed Janet L. Yellen as the chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, marking the first time that a woman has led the country’s central bank in its 100-year history.  As a Fed official, Ms. Yellen, 67, has been an influential proponent of the Fed’s extraordinary measures to revive the economy, even though interest rates are already close to zero. But as chairwoman, Ms. Yellen’s arduous task will be to oversee the gradual unwinding of those extraordinary measures, despite an uncomfortably high unemployment rate of 7 percent and subdued inflation.

via Senate Confirms Yellen as Fed Chairwoman – NYTimes.com.